1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wrist brace adapted to limit the movement of the wrist of a user and be easily worn and adjusted, thereby enabling a user with limited manual dexterity to quickly and easily adjust the positioning of the wrist brace to a maximum comfort and/or optimal treatment orientation, the wrist brace being particularly effective for treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome or rehabilitation of a broken wrist or strained carpal ligament.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many wrist ailments, ranging from arthritis or a sprained wrist to a broken wrist or carpal tunnel syndrome require for their treatment that the range of movement of a person's wrist be limited and that adequate support be provided for the wrist such that wrist muscles do not get overstrained. Unfortunately, treatment of many of these ailments may require long periods of time during which a sufferer's wrist muscle may weaken or during which an individual must use their hands despite the wrist ailment. Such needs are evidenced by the sufferer of carpal tunnel syndrome, the treatment of which takes extended periods of time, or in a more specific instance, an athlete with a broken or sprained wrist who can continue to perform physically if the wrist is properly protected, securely disposed in a rehabilitating position, and does not hinder the use of their hand. A further important necessity involved with the use of a wrist brace regards the facilitated manipulation of the wrist brace by its user. Since individuals, when putting on the wrist brace by themselves are left with only one hand to work with, and often due to the nature of the ailment their other hand may lack strength or otherwise have limited manual dexterity, the wrist brace must be easy to put on and more importantly easy to adjust so as to position the wrist in its optimal position.
Existing in the art are many splint/brace assemblies which are significantly bulky, limit the use of an individual's hands, and are difficult to adjust by the user. For example, the reference to Corbett, U.S. Pat. No. 2,312,523, discloses an adjustable tension splint which includes a front hand grip which limits the use of a user's hand and requires the loosening and tightening of a plurality of screws in order to adjust the tension of the splint. Similarly, the derotation wrist brace of Carter, U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,044 utilizes a number of pins to limit the range of motion of parallel hinges on the brace. It would be substantially difficult for a user to adjust the brace to a more desirable position during use, and use of the hands would be limited. An adjustable wrist splint, such as that disclosed in Lindemann, U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,971, which enables lateral movement of the wrist is limited with regard to the disposition of the hand relative to the forearm and could not be utilized in a large variety of circumstances, much like the universal articulated splint of Deprospero, U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,906 which includes an elaborate hand splint wherein each finger on the hand is immobilized such that an individual cannot use their hand if necessary. The splint/braces of the prior art are not adapted to enable facilitated use and adjustment by the particular user and are generally directed at fixing the disposition of the wrist relative to the forearm without allowing a user to make quick and easy adjustments of the positioning as needed for their comfort and beneficial treatment. The brace of the present invention is adapted specifically to have multiple varying uses, be easy to put on by a user who will necessarily only have one hand to work with, and be quickly and easily adjustable by the individual user so as to assure that maximum comfort and benefit is achieved.